DESCRIPTION

ldapdelete is a shell-accessible interface to the ldap_delete(3)
library call.
ldapdelete opens a connection to an LDAP server, binds, and deletes one
or more entries. If one or more DN arguments are provided, entries
with those Distinguished Names are deleted. Each DN should be provided
using the LDAPv3 string representation as defined in RFC 2253. If no
dn arguments are provided, a list of DNs is read from standard input
(or from file if the -f flag is used).

OPTIONS

-n Show what would be done, but don’t actually delete entries.
Useful for debugging in conjunction with -v.
-v Use verbose mode, with many diagnostics written to standard out-
put.
-k Use Kerberos IV authentication instead of simple authentication.
It is assumed that you already have a valid ticket granting
ticket. This option only has effect if ldapdelete is compiled
with Kerberos support.
-K Same as -k, but only does step 1 of the Kerberos IV bind. This
is useful when connecting to a slapd and there is no
x500dsa.hostname principal registered with your Kerberos Domain
Controller(s).
-c Continuous operation mode. Errors are reported, but
ldapdelete will continue with deletions. The default is to
exit after reporting an error.
-M[M] Enable manage DSA IT control. -MM makes control critical.
-ddebuglevel
Set the LDAP debugging level to debuglevel. ldapdelete must be
compiled with LDAP_DEBUG defined for this option to have any
effect.
-ffile
Read a series of DNs from file, one per line, performing an LDAP
delete for each.
-x Use simple authentication instead of SASL.
-Dbinddn
Use the Distinguished Name binddn to bind to the LDAP directory.
-W Prompt for simple authentication. This is used instead of spec-
ifying the password on the command line.
-wpasswd
Use passwd as the password for simple authentication.
-ypasswdfile
Use complete contents of passwdfile as the password for simple
authentication.
-Hldapuri
Specify URI(s) referring to the ldap server(s).
-hldaphost
Specify an alternate host on which the ldap server is running.
Deprecated in favor of -H.
-pldapport
Specify an alternate TCP port where the ldap server is listen-
ing. Deprecated in favor of -H.
-P2|3 Specify the LDAP protocol version to use.
-r Do a recursive delete. If the DN specified isn’t a leaf, its
children, and all their children are deleted down the tree. No
verification is done, so if you add this switch, ldapdelete will
happily delete large portions of your tree. Use with care.
-Osecurity-properties
Specify SASL security properties.
-I Enable SASL Interactive mode. Always prompt. Default is to
prompt only as needed.
-Q Enable SASL Quiet mode. Never prompt.
-Uauthcid
Specify the authentication ID for SASL bind. The form of the
identity depends on the actual SASL mechanism used.
-Rrealm
Specify the realm of authentication ID for SASL bind. The form
of the realm depends on the actual SASL mechanism used.
-Xauthzid
Specify the requested authorization ID for SASL bind. authzid
must be one of the following formats: dn:<distinguishedname> or
u:<username>-Ymech
Specify the SASL mechanism to be used for authentication. If
it’s not specified, the program will choose the best mechanism
the server knows.
-Z[Z] Issue StartTLS (Transport Layer Security) extended operation. If
you use -ZZ, the command will require the operation to be suc-
cessful.

EXAMPLE

The following command:
ldapdelete "cn=Delete Me,dc=example,dc=com"
will attempt to delete the entry named "cn=Delete Me,dc=exam-
ple,dc=com". Of course it would probably be necessary to supply
authentication credentials.

DIAGNOSTICS

Exit status is 0 if no errors occur. Errors result in a non-zero exit
status and a diagnostic message being written to standard error.